Herberton Cemetery where Wilhemena Smith lies in an unmarked grave. Photo courtesy of The Cairns Post.

16/02/05

The history of the racing industry is filled with some amazing
stories. Sometimes they are amazing for the right reasons –
sometimes not.

You would go a long way though to find a more extraordinary story
than that of Bill ‘Girlie’ Smith.

If you think Pam O’Neill and Linda Jones, in 1979, were the
first women to ride in races against men in Australia, this true
story will leave you with a different outlook. Sadly, history will
probably always attribute Pam and Linda with a record they are not
entitled to. They are unquestionably the first female riders to be
licensed to ride in the metropolitan area of Australia, but that is
all they are. They were not the first women jockeys to ride against
men in Australia, as historical records have always portrayed. In
fact, they had a predecessor in that field – by over 30
years.

Bill Smith rode in far North Queensland on the country tracks
around Cairns. The other jockeys nicknamed Bill
‘Girlie’ as a reference to his shyness to change his
clothes in front of them. He would arrive at the track with the
colours already being worn under his normal street clothes. He
would never shower at the track – even after a big book of
rides. Bill kept conversations with other jockeys to a minimum. His
fellow riders didn’t talk much either to
‘Girlie’, citing him as a loner. They just put all his
odd traits down as eccentric behaviour.

Bill Smith obviously held a joint trainer and jockey licence. It
was possible back in the 1940’s and 1950’s – and
is still allowable today – for one individual to hold both
licences. An example is current Queensland licensee Peter Clarke
from Goondiwindi. Peter can both train and ride his own horses. His
riding licence is restrictive, in that he can’t ride at TAB
meetings and he must ride his own horses in a race. For instance,
if he knows the horse he trains is as slow as a wet week, he cannot
jump ship and accept a ride on a more fancied runner in that race.

So Bill Smith both trained and rode winners way back in the
1940’s and 1950’s, although he was not a high profile
premiership jockey or trainer, even in the far north of Queensland.

Bill Smith eventually retired from race riding and training
racehorses. He had been a battler in his life and retired to live
on a government-funded aged pension in a tiny hamlet called Innot
Hot Springs, situated on the Kennedy Highway, about 150 kilometres
from Cairns. Bill rented a one room flat next to the Innot Hot
Springs Hotel.

The shy, reclusive and then elderly Bill Smith became ill in 1975
and, in declining health, he was taken to the Herberton Hospital
about 80 kilometres from Innot Hot Springs. (I am still in the
process of confirming the place of death was Herberton Hospital
with Births, Deaths and Marriages.) Bill ‘Girlie’ Smith
never recovered from the illness that led to the stint of
hospitalisation. It was upon his death that nurses launched an
inquiry into the true identity of William Smith. It was
subsequently recorded that William Smith was in fact a female. The
hospital inquiries were reported as finding that William Smith was
actually a woman who had been born Wilhemena Smith in a Sydney
hospital in 1886. The investigations revealed tiny Wilhemena was
orphaned soon after birth – the exact circumstances of why
she became orphaned remain unknown to this day. Wilhemena never
married or had a family and no living relations were ever found.
The investigations also supposedly found that Wilhemena had worked
as a seaman and a miner at various times of her life.

Upon Bill’s death, one publication reported a jockey called
Joe McNamarra, who rode against Bill, spoke of how he and Bill both
fell from their mounts one day at Atherton. Joe told of how he was
okay, but Bill was winded. Joe tried to undo Bill’s riding
pants to help him breathe, but was told ‘no, no, I’ll
be alright’. Nearly 30 years later Joe McNamarra realised why
he had his hand taken away from near Bill’s pants!

The story of William or Wilhemena Smith is one of the most amazing
stories in the history of Australian racing. It is unquestionably
factual.

I spoke to some well-known and highly respected North Queensland
racing personalities to seek their historical version of events in
the life of Bill Smith.

A North Queensland resident for all of his 64 years, Alan Atkinson
said he recalled Bill Smith riding, but didn’t believe he
ever rode any of his family’s horses. The Atkinson family has
raced horses in North Queensland since 1903. Alan said ‘the
circuit in the days when Bill Smith rode involved tracks at Cairns,
Mareeba, Mount Garnet, Tolga, Innisfail and Herberton’. He
also noted, back then ‘Herberton raced for the second highest
prize money in the State, outside of Brisbane. The rich mining area
of Mount Garnet had the biggest tin mine in the southern
hemisphere.’

Alan also stated that Innot Hot Springs, where Bill Smith retired
to, ‘had hot water bubbling up out of the sand at the back of
the pub and people with arthritis used to drive there and lie in
the hot water for its medicinal benefits’. Alan said that
Innot Hot Springs today ‘has a population of about 30’.

I also spoke to 73-year-old retired racehorse trainer John Brady,
who resides at Mareeba. John’s father was also a trainer and
farrier in Cairns. John said he knew Bill Smith. ‘The other
jockeys all called him “Girlie” because he’d
always come to the races with the silks on under his clothes. I
remember he trained two horses – one was called Nor East and
the other was a chestnut horse called Sydney Two.’ Asked
whether Bill Smith had trained other horses, John Brady replied:
‘No, to the best of my knowledge they were the only two
horses he ever trained.’ Asked if the horses won many races,
John thought they ‘were only average’. He also said
‘Bill Smith was only an average jockey’.

John said elderly, retired Cairns trainer Fred Lansky would know
more than him. I spoke to 94-year-old Fred Lansky, who trained
racehorses in Cairns for 70-odd years until retiring in 1999. Fred
said his ‘memory was slipping’, but recalled that while
he never rode for him, Bill Smith had lived ‘half a mile or a
mile from the Cairns racetrack’ where the Balaklava School
now stands in the Cairns suburb of Earlville. Fred said that Bill
Smith ‘lived alone and kept to himself and didn’t speak
much, but when he did he sounded like a female’. Asked
whether anybody knew Bill was a woman, Fred said, ‘Nobody
knew, but he wouldn’t take his pants off in the
jockeys’ room. Of course everyone found out when he, ah she
died.’

I asked Fred if he knew of any jockeys who had ridden against Bill
to whom I could talk. He said ‘not really’, but
continued by saying ‘Jack Wilson was the premier jockey here
for a long time – he’d have known everything, but he
died about 4 or 5 years ago. Jack Wilson was so respected here,
they have a memorial race in his honour each year.’ Asked how
many jockeys regularly rode in that era when Bill Smith and Jack
Wilson rode, Fred pondered for a while and said ‘probably
about 30’.

I spoke to 80-odd-year-old retired trainer Pat Williams from Mount
Garnet.He remembers Bill Smith as ‘a person who kept to
herself. When Bill died everyone found out she was a female, but
she’d ridden in races all around the Tablelands and she had
ability as a jockey. She was never close to anyone, but did strike
up an association with a much respected bloke called Fred Le Hong,
a Chinese man. He’d always stand a couple of stallions up
here and have a few mares and I recall he had a handy (son of)
Heroic stallion up here, a horse called Sydney. Fred Le Hong had a
property just outside Tolga and Bill Smith must have worked there.
There were many Chinese people in racing. We had an outstanding
jockey up here and he became the leading trainer in Cairns. He rode
and trained as Jack Wilson (Fred Lansky made reference to the same
man), but Jack Wilson’s real name was Yet Foi. His parents
had come from the goldfields up at Croydon. That man was a master
with a horse. Anyone with a rogue horse would give it to Jack and
he’d handle it; he’d ride it in races and you could bet
he’d get it out the barrier first; he was outstanding as a
jockey.’

In reference to the hot springs at the Innot Hot Springs Hotel, Pat
said ‘there had been a new hotel built there about 10 to 15
years ago, but the old hotel used to have baths there where people
with arthritis could go there and sit in the baths’. Pat
confirmed that Bill Smith did live next to the pub by saying
‘I knew she was there’.

Pat said: ‘Turf Monthly once wrote a story about how women
like Pam O’Neill were the first women riders. A chap called
Bill Davis and I put a whole overview of Bill Smith’s life
together then and said this woman had been riding back in the
pre-war and post-war years up here. We sent it in, but we never
ever got a reply.’

I spoke to a helpful and knowledgeable lady called Alison Steel at
the Herberton Shire Council. Alison said Wilhemena Smith is buried
in a grave at Herberton Cemetery with no tombstone at grave number
25, row number 26. Council records indicate she died on 24/6/1975
and was buried on 25/6/1975. She was Church of England and the
officiating minister was Reverend E. Biggs. The cemetery fees were
$4.20. Wilhemena was 88 years of age.

Alison said it was quite common for graves at Herberton Cemetery to
be without tombstones. She said probably only about 30% of graves
in the cemetery had a tombstone. Alison put this down to a high
number of itinerant workers who worked at the mines there during
last century and large numbers of people who died as a result of
mining accidents.

Next I spoke to Linde Allendorf, a 72-year-old retired jockey.
Linde is the father of former Sydney and Hong Kong jockey and now
Macau trainer, Geoff Allendorf.

Linde, who retired as a trainer in 1993 after being a jockey until
1969, and his wife Shirley vividly remember Bill Smith, as he lived
up the street from them in a house at McComb Street. The house no
longer exists. Shirley Allendorf, now 74, says she remembers
passing that house where Bill Smith lived alone, on the way to and
from school when she was a young girl. Shirley’s cousin
Harold McDonald, now 77, who had cumulatively worked at Cairns
Cannon Park racetrack for 42 years as both a Starter and Clerk of
the Course, said Bill Smith had two nicknames, ‘Girlie’
and ‘Granny’.

I spoke to Harold who recalled: ‘We all thought Bill was a
woman – we were convinced – but we had no proof. He had
big hips like a woman and a voice like a woman. One day when I was
about 17 (1945), myself and a mate Robert (Jock) Rookwood waited
for Bill to go to the outside shower. It had holes in the tin
structure around the shower and we were going to find out once and
for all. You wouldn't believe it, but just as we were about to
get our eye up to the hole, a voice bellowed out . . . You boys
looking for something? Well, we nearly died and got out of
there!’

I asked Harold what he knew about Bill's horse Sydney Two and
he told me that ‘Sydney Two was a stallion and he wasn't
a bad horse. He started in a Cairns Cup once and Bill rode it and
they went out with a big lead, but it knocked up and ran last I
think. He actually served some mares too, because he was by a
stallion called Sydney and he died as a fairly young horse, so Bill
Smith put mares to Sydney Two when owners wanted that deceased
Sydney stallion’s blood.’

Linde Allendorf says he rode against Bill Smith for about 10 years
and continued by saying that ‘we (jockeys) all wanted to know
if Bill Smith was a woman, as he spoke so softly. We were going to
strip him one day in the jockeys room, but a stripe (steward)
called Walter Carbery walked in and told us to stop.’

Linde said, ‘Bill Smith worked in the Cairns Brewery for many
years – somewhere between 10 or 20 years – and used to
ride a horse down to work. The horse was Sydney Two, which she
trained and rode in races. She’d take him down there and feed
him the brewery grain, leave him in a yard there all day, then ride
him home when she finished work. That horse raced until an old age
and went around (in races) all the time.’

Linde also recalls her ‘having a fall at the Cairns track in
the 1950’s and the ambulance people rushed to her aid, but
Bill Smith would not let them touch her’.

Linde also said that a jockey Joe McNamarra referred to in another
article on the subject (A Racing Heart published 1987) was in fact
‘a jockey called Jimmy McNamara (one “r” in
surname and a different Christian name). He died 5 or 6 years ago,
but was a well-known jockey here – he rode a Cairns Cup
winner and so on.’

To me, it would represent a gross dereliction of duty on the part
of all racing people if we didn’t acknowledge forthwith that
history should record that a lady called Wilhemena Smith was in
fact the first female jockey in Australia.

Accordingly, she should not be bestowed the indignity and the
injustice of lying in an unmarked grave in Herberton Cemetery.
Positive discussions have already taken place and it is highly
likely that a public announcement will be forthcoming soon to erect
a tombstone on Wilhemena’s grave, as a result of this article
being penned. Furthermore, it is possible that interested parties
will be able to contribute financially. Any decisions made at the
conclusion of those discussions will be listed here as a news
article.

Take one moment and reflect what this person had to endure in life
to achieve her marvellous feat. She must have surely had a daily
battle with innuendo, suspicion and mockery. She obviously rose
above all that and today should be rightly regarded as one of
Australia’s great pioneering women – in an era when
women were clearly denied equality.

Wilhemena Smith needs to be afforded her proper place in Australian
racing history. She was unequivocally the first licensed female
rider in Australia to ride against men – albeit the licence
was in a male name.

Thank you to all the wonderful people referred to throughout this
article for giving me their time to bring this remarkable story
together. Their reputations for honesty and integrity, achieved
over a lifetime, only serve to engender credence in the overall
story.

The erection of a tombstone on the grave of Wilhemena Smith is of
paramount importance. This would ensure that the historical
significance of her grave is respected and that it can be visited
by current and future generations of racing participants, or women
drawing inspiration from female heroines who, often unknowingly,
blazed trails on their behalf.

You are a better man than me Bill Smith – and a better woman
than most Wilhemena Smith. In death it is high time we saluted you
both.